Triple Intervention

The Triple Intervention was a diplomatic crisis between Japan and three European Great Powers in the aftermath of the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895. The Imperial Russian Navy coerced Japan into agreeing to the Great Powers' terms, forfeiting the Liaodong peninsula and Port Arthur (Lushunkou, Dalian) to the Russians.

History
In the 1895 First Sino-Japanese War, the Imperial Japanese Navy destroyed the navy of Qing China and forced the Chinese government to sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which ceded the Taiwan, the Liaodong peninsula, and Port Arthur to the Japanese, transferred Korea into the Japanese sphere of influence, and paid war reparations. The Japanese acquisition of Liaodong and Port Arthur solidified Japanese power in the Yellow Sea, threatening Russia. Russia enlisted diplomatic support from France and Germany, and the three Great Powers threatened Japan with war. The Russian battleship Nikolai I steamed towards the Japanese port of Nagasaki, and Japan, which had no battleships, was forced to cede Liaodong and Port Arthur to Russia. A year later, Russia secured a 25-year lease on the territory from China, gaining a warm water port. Japan's humiliation created strong revanchist desires, and Japan ordered four warships from Britain. The Boxer Rebellion of 1899 led to Russia increasing its manpower in Manchuria, making Russia more of a threat to Japan, and causing worry among the other Great Powers. In 1902, Japan and Britain allied, and, in 1903, Japan created a fleet of six battleships, ten cruisers, and 40 destroyers at Sasebo, facing Russia's 7 battleships, 8 cruisers, and 25 destroyers at Port Arthur. This arms race set the stage for the Russo-Japanese War shortly after.